Contributed by: FuckYouOiOiOiFuckYouOiOiOi(others by this writer | submit your own)Published on January 29th 2006Ill Repute was a hardcore punk band straight outta Oxnard, California. They were the first major Nardcore band and are fucking awesome.
Sometimes, when a label re-releases an album, they fuck it up by putting too much extra shit on it and ruining the short, fast, to-the-point hardcore punk that t.

Ill Repute was a hardcore punk band straight outta Oxnard, California. They were the first major Nardcore band and are fucking awesome.

Sometimes, when a label re-releases an album, they fuck it up by putting too much extra shit on it and ruining the short, fast, to-the-point hardcore punk that the original album was. This is very much the case with Mystic's 1995 re-release of Ill Repute's What Happens Next?, which they re-titled What Happened Then and added an extra 11 songs. As much as I love this band, I feel like the extra songs can drag on, and the effect of the original album is lost. That is why I'm just going to review the original release and original 11.

The album starts off with "Oxnard," an incredibly fast paced kick in the nuts, featuring chants of "Oxnard!" The rest of the album doesn't slow down at all. Most of the songs are under 2 minutes long and manage to include a slew of lyrics and even guitar solos. They have positive lyrics without being overtly straight-edge (except for "Fill It Up," which reminds me of Minor Threat's "In My Eyes"). Their lyrics also avoid being cliché. In "Don't Get Used," singer John Phaneuf advises us to "use your head, not your heart." My favorite song on the album is the hectic anti-war anthem, "Turn the Guns Around." Words cannot express how good the dueling vocals and high speed yet catchy chorus is. This is probably the best Nardcore punk song ever written.

So, if you like `80s hardcore you will fucking love this. An easy way to summarize this album is it's fucking fast. The only version available now is the re-released version, but you can do what I did and just copy the original 11 songs onto another CD. It only takes about 15 minutes to listen to so, needless to say, you will play the fuck out of it.

This record is a reissue that was initially released on Indecesion Records and was titled "We'll get back them" with permission (and cooperation) from the Band. There were some copy right issues with Mysitc Records and Doug Moody, owner of Mystic forced their hands. Mystic then released this as "What Happened Then?".

This record was always meant to be a compilation of the early Ill Repute recordings that were released on Mystic. tracks 1-11 were originally released as "What Happens Next?" LP. Tracks 13-18 were relased as "Oxnard Land of No Toilets" EP. Tracks 19-20 were released on the "Nardcore" compilation (which featured songs from Dr Know, RKL, Agression (there is only one g in their name), Stalag 13, and many other Oxnard and surrounding area bands from 1984). Track 22 appears on "Omelette" and another Mystic comp as well.

Track Listing
1. Oxnard
2. What Happens Next
3. Look At Me
4. Did I Have Fun
5. Don't Get Used
6. Cherokee Nation
7. Book And It's Cover
8. Wayward
9. Turn The Guns Around
10. Hit And Run
11. Fill It Up
12. Fuck With My Head
13. In Society Who Cares
14. Bad Reputation
15. Greed
16. We'll Get Back At Them
17. Sleepwalking
18. I Won't Kill For You
19. President
20. Sleepwalking II
21. It's Not Going To Happen To Me
22. In The Night

NARDCORE was a term created by Ismael Hernandez, Bass player from Dr Know. The Hardcore term had already existed, and he just put it togehter with his hometown of Oxnard...creating NARDCORE. There is also a nardcore symbol (featured on this Ill Repute record being reviewed here) that had the standard HC X with a Diamond around it...giving us and O and X.

There were many many great bands that have come out of the Oxnard California area. Dr Know, Stalag 13 and Agression were the biggest (Agression was really the first), but other bands like RKL and Scared Straight (which became Ten Foot Pole and Pulley) were also closely assocaited with the Nardcore scene.

Oxnard had major influence on all punk rock music, with NOFX being huge Ill Repute fans and the success that they have had (not to mention Fat Wrekc Chords). False Confessions, a band from South Oxnard (featured on the Nardcore comp and a Mystic EP), had memeber that went on to much bigger things, Scott Morris, the bass player, plays guitar and sings for the Swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the drummer, Harry has been the Drummer for the Cramps for years now. Eddy Burgos, aka Numbskull Productions, was in a band called Habeaus Corpus (also on the Nardcore comp).

The Nard torch has been carried on by many great bands, like No Motiv, In Control, Missing 23rd and Retaliate. Todd Jones of Carry On,Terror and currently Blacklisted is Nard thru and thru as well.

Nowhere else in the Country, especailly in the 80's was there a music scene like Oxnard (excepet maybe DC). And Ill Repute was the best of it all....in my opinion (though that changes if I am listing to Stalag, Dr Know or Agression).

Dammit, joeg, illiteracy and disrespect for equals isn't punk. Disrespect for authority IS, though. If you aren't intelligent and esssentially a book smart white liberal ass like me, how can you ever rebel? I guess I'm one of those "radical students." Anyway, use cursing judiciously,for REAL emphasis, or as filler in songs. (i.e., don't say, "oh, yeah", say "fuck".)

Anonymous (February 3, 2006)

Everyone who likes ILLREPUTE should check out their newest release
recorded LIVE!!!!
LTErecords.com

Yeah the cliched lyrics quote was rather laughable. FuckYoublahblahblah do you know what cliche means? I'm not disrespecting you as a person, but what you said doesn't make any sense. Unless you've had no contact with the outside world, in which case that particular line wouldn't seem cliched at all.

I actually thought the swear words were well placed and read the way I would speak if I were talking to a friend. You have filter through a lot of bullshit on this site, I'm just happy bands like Ill Repute and the Toy Dolls get some attention on PUNKnews...

bullshit. cursing a lot, not a little, A LOT, is definitely punk as fuck. it's anti-authority, anti-literacy, anti-government, and anti-respect-the 4 basic tenets of punk. ain't nobody gonna tell a punk what to do, NOBODY....unless you're in a band called clit 45, then you get pwnd by all.

Wow. Good band, but a HORRIBLE review. FuckYouOiOiOi, please, stop using casual profanity in the reviews. I'm not against it in any way, but so much detracts from the writing and makes it look stupid and amatuerish. PLEASE, limit yourself to one or two "fuck's" next time, OK? Cursing does NOT make you more "punk." (Just listen to our good friends in Crucial Youth).

Yeah I always thought these guys and Stalag 13 were kind of the big mising link between original hardcore thrash and the melodic cali sound of the '90s. I like all the Nardcore I've heard, just fun fast bands whose straight-edge songs never come off as preachy.

Anonymous (January 29, 2006)

Fernando Vargas is from Oxnard... definetly the water.

Anonymous (January 29, 2006)

Madlib's from Oxnard too. Must be something in the water there.

Anonymous (January 29, 2006)

1. Stalag 13
2. Ill repute
3. Scared straight
4. RKL
5. Aggression

Get anything by those bands and you're good to go.

---Trav.

Anonymous (January 29, 2006)

dante

i think its awesome you brought up No Motiv....i own everything from the Problems 7", to the split with the Choice, and all the vagronie stuff.

You can get their discography of sorts from Indecision Records - www.indecisionrecords.com There was a copyright issue and they can't sell them, but I think if you ask them (if it is not on the site) they can get you one.

Nardcore is a punk movement that came out of Southern California in the early 80s. The name is a reference to the OxNARD, California HardCORE music scene. This community, just northwest of Los Angeles, California, was the spawning ground for many legends of the hardcore movement during the early 80s. The area was such a hotbed of punk and skate bands that their sound became known as "Nardcore." - Wikipedia

the more you know....

Anonymous (January 29, 2006)

Heres the real question on everyones minds, what the fuck is nardcore?

No Motiv used to be a straight SoCal hardcore band, somwhere between Pennywise and Minor Threat. They were really good--Ill Repute's label put out their first release and it has a few good numbers on it, like "Never-Ending Cloudy Day".

When melodic hardcore started loosing steam in the 90's, they were one of many bands that started slowing down and making more "rock" albums--Gameface is one, Theologian's Homemade was another, and you might count the Ataris in there too. I looked at it as the West Coast's reaction to Midwestern emo. But it never really went anywhere.

No Motiv is a decent rock band with roots in Nardcore and I think their first CD for Vagrant is a good example. At least they tried something a little unexpected.